Metareview - Rainbow Six Vegas (Xbox 360)

Rainbow Six Vegas: the other Unreal Engine 3 shooter.

Vegas will no doubt live in Gears' shadow this holiday, but series' followers know that Rainbow Six offers its own brand of 'thoughtful' combat. Indeed, it's the team-based multiplayer that will propel Vegas up the Xbox Live popularity chart. Rainbow Six is back.

• Game Informer (95/100) - "While the single-player mode is great, the multiplayer may be the best thing to come to Xbox Live since Halo 2 ... the best addition in the game, though, is without a doubt the four-player co-op. You and three of your friends can now experience the entire single-player campaign together as one Rainbow Six squad. Note to game developers: Every first-person shooter should feature this mode from this day forward."

• Games Radar (90/100) - "Deathmatch-style modes do exist and are definitely entertaining, but it's team play -- much like in the single player campaign -- that will keep you coming back ... the game's greatest feat is adding strategy to the first person shooter and getting the player -- whether working alone or with others -- to occasionally stop, forget about the gun and just think."

• 1UP (85/100) - "There can be no doubt that the reception of Rainbow Six Vegas will be somewhat tainted by the release of Gears of War. While the two games are very different stylistically, they share some fundamental gameplay mechanics, and both suffer from the same problem: namely, bland-but-competent online gameplay."